It is a goal - in fact, post-IE5.0 we'd originally planned on doing this in
the next release, but it ended up being cut as our schedule plans changed
and we laid down plans for what is becoming IE 5.5. You can now control the
z-ordering of IFRAMEs (as well as transparency) though, which is pretty
cool.
The <SELECT> z-ordering issue ends up being a pretty difficult thing to fix,
because SELECT is a fairly complex control - we currently use the built in
Windows drop-down listbox, which is a windowed control (technical Windows
programming term - it means the control is a window in and of itself).
Windowed controls are always entirely on top of or beneath other windows -
they're not mixed in the z-ordering of objects inside some other window,
since that window draws itself all at once. That means to get the SELECT to
play in the z-ordering of the objects we draw in our window, we need to
re-implement SELECT as a windowless control (or some other implementation).
We have a first-pass at this - the IE:SELECT element behavior, check the IE
5.5 beta SDK - but we felt it would not be high-quality enough in this
release to pass for the <SELECT> element.
-Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: rev-bob@gotc.com [mailto:rev-bob@gotc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 12:55 PM
To: Chris Wilson; Html Mailing List
Subject: re: RE: CSS-2 z-index
> > From: Palmer, Rex [mailto:rpalmer@elcom.com]
> > Subject: CSS-2 z-index
> >
> > I am using the z-index property of CSS-2 stylesheets to control
layering,
> > but cannot seem to control the layer position of select boxes. I am
> > designing for IE5 only. Does anyone have experience with this?
>
> You won't be able to make this work. SELECT controls are windowed
controls
> in our implementation, which in short means they sit above everything and
> don't play in z-order.
>
> -Chris Wilson
> Internet Explorer Team
Is there any hope of seeing this change to CSS2-conformant behavior in the
(relatively)
near future...say, in IE5.5 or IE6?
Rev. Robert L. Hood | http://rev-bob.gotc.com/
Get Off The Cross! | http://www.gotc.com/
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